Damage by insects is a serious risk to holdings containing all kinds of writing materials and packaging of other documents such as records. Insects find food in these materials in the form of organic substances such as starch, protein and cellulose. Such conditions encourage insects to multiply more quickly accellerating the destruction. Damage from devouring pests causes the disintegration of paper layers, bindings of book blocks and book binding materials.

Such damage is typical in the case of books and manuscripts which have been stored for centuries in conservationally unfavourable environments. The examples show two oriental manuscripts. The codices come from the collection of Eduard Glaser, an Austrian explorer of Southern Arabia.